The US economy looks distinctly Old World

Commentators at the Paris Europlace Financial Forum in Hong Kong point to a prolonged period of US weakness, a booming Asia and a resurgent European Union.

When the revitalised Eastern European countries of the former Soviet Union queued up to support the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 in the face of French opposition, there was much talk of the æOld EuropeÆ versus the æNew EuropeÆ.

That bifurcation between fast-growing dynamic economies and slow, lumbering economies is now becoming increasingly commonplace when referring to the US and the rest of the world, according to the speeches made at the Paris Europlace International Financial Forum held...